I actually read The Ocean at the End of the Lane twice in August, and felt very different about it each time. The first time I read it I went through it very fast- it's hard not to, it's so short. But because I read it so quickly the emotions of the story didn't hit me very hard, and the book as a whole didn't leave a very strong impression. The second time I read it out loud to my sister, over the course of an 8 hour drive. Going through the story a second time, more slowly, deepened my experience of the book considerably. This is not a story to race through (though the tense parts made me want to treat it like a page turner). This is a story to savor. Read it slowly. Or better yet, get the audio version and listen to it unfold in the author's voice. Of all Gaiman's books, this one is most similar to Coraline.